Failure to set up the Sovereign Wealth Fund criticised, Telikom undertakes ‘due diligence’ on EMTV, and a call to continue tax breaks for resource sector investors. Your weekly digest of the latest business news.

The level of secrecy surrounding the structure of the proposed Sovereign Wealth Fund, and the lack of open debate about the fund, have been criticised by the Chairman of the Institute of National Affairs, Dr Thomas Webster. He says the failure of the political leadership to have the SWF established and made operational prior to the start of export of PNG natural gas this year is of grave concern.

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Telikom’s Michael Donnelly. Credit: EMTV

Telikom PNG says its proposed acquisition of EMTV from Fiji Television Ltd will open up the broadcast market in PNG. CEO Michael Donnelly, has told EMTV ‘our customers, particularly our online customers, (they) want content, over and above voice and traditional data services’. Fiji Television Ltd has signed an MOU with Telikom allowing due diligence to take its course. Chairman of MNL (owner of EMTV) Iowane Naiveli says he expects an offer by 30 November.

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The plan to stop granting of tax exemptions or incentives to investors in the resources sector has to be reconsidered, says Petroleum and Energy Department Secretary Rendle Rimua.

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French miner, Total, plans to have a concept for development of Elk/Antelope gas fields finalised by mid next year, according to Total E&P PNG Ltd managing director Philippe Blanchard. Meanwhile, Total’s CEO, Christophe de Margerie, was killed in an airplane collision with a snowplow at Moscow’s International Airport on Tuesday.

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Public Service Minister, Sir Puka Temu

Public Service Minister Sir Puka Temu has launched the new Public Service (Management) Act, aimed at improving the public service and service delivery to the rural districts.

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Heinz will cut more than 240 jobs in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea as it tries to make its operations more efficient.

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PNG Energy Workers Association president Santee Margis says PNG Power owes its 2,700 employees nationwide K4.6 million in unpaid superannuation since April this year.

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Proxy adviser to Newcrest Mining shareholders, ISS Governance, has recommended investors reject the remuneration package paid to MD Sandeep Biswas.

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China is distancing itself from a major Chinese-operated tuna fishing company which has admitted it exceeded the catch quotas for Bigeye and Yellowfin tuna for three of the last four years. The China Tuna Industry Group claimed sanctions were ineffective and it would not be penalised for its actions.

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Peter O’Neill with Australia’s PM Tony Abbott and former Japanese PM, Yasuo Fukuda at the swearing in ceremony of Indonesia’s Joko Widodo.

PM Peter O’Neill has met Indonesia’s new president Joko Widodo in Jakarta. They discussed the economy, trade and investment, border development and PNG’s hosting of APEC in 2018. Earlier, O’Neill told Australian PM, Tony Abbott, his Cabinet will be considering a new policy on resettling people held on Manus, because of a lack of public support. The Australian federal government has spent more than A$1 billion this financial year to house about 2200 asylum seekers in offshore detention centres in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

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The founder and past Chairman of Airlines PNG, Sir John Ralston Wild, has died in Cairns, Australia. Earlier this month, Sir John gifted the majority of his shares back to the company for A$1 to enable further investment in the airline by Nasfund and MRDC.

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China has invested US$200 million in Fiji over the last 10 years, but the ANZ Bank‘s Pacific Monthly Outlook forecasts traditional bilateral and multiliateral partners will return to Fiji, after last month’s elections.

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Oil forecaster Fereidun Fesharaki, chairman of Facts Global Energy, says prices may fall to US$60 a barrel by December 2014, putting proposed LNG projects ‘to sleep for a number of years’.

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China’s economic growth will slow to about 4% annually after 2020, says New York-based research group, the Conference Board. China announced this week growth was 7.3% last quarter.

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Two eminent Harvard economists have speculated on what would happen if China’s extraordinary growth rate of more than 6% for the last 32 years cannot continue and if it slows to its mean rate of 2.1%. Their conclusion: a profound impact on the world’s growth rate and more importantly for commodity exporting countries. Their recommendation: government planners and policy makers need to analyse the impact of a China economic slowdown.

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Shells cleared on Palau, 2014. Credit: AFP

A multi-national 500-strong defence team begins clearing World War II explosives from Bougainville this week. They are working their way round the Pacific, successfully clearing more than 12,000 unexploded bombs in Solomon Islands last year.